BIOGRAPHY
American tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, a Grand Finals winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council competition, is a Wagnerian star on the rise. Praised by the New York Times as a heldentenor with a “steady, burnished sound” and by theBay Area Reporter for “his clarion Wagnerian power.” Of a concert performance with the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle raved: “the title character’s prayer from the final act of Wagner’s Rienzi elicited a gleaming, potent performance from tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven, marked by suave phrasing and tonal freshness.”
Mr. van Schoonhoven’s most recent engagements include performances of Tchekalinsky (while covering Ghermann) in The Queen of Spades with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Cincinnati Opera, the title role in Act III of Siegfried with the New York Repertory Orchestra, and Lensky in Eugene Onegin with Livermore Valley Opera. Van Schoonhoven was scheduled to make his Metropolitan Opera debut in Tristan und Isolde, sing his first performances of Erik in The Flying Dutchman for Opera Maine, and return to Lyric Opera of Chicago in Samson et Dalila, but unfortunately all of these engagements were cancelled or postponed due to Covid-19.
He joins the Metropolitan Opera in the 2021/2022 season for Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, makes his debut with Opera de Rouen as Laca in Jenufa and returns to the Buffalo Philharmonic for Songs of a Wayfarer, and to perform the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. He also will perform the role of Don José in Carmen with Hawaii Opera Theatre, in February of 2022.
Notable highlights of previous seasons include van Schoonhoven’s debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic as Don José in Carmen, the role of Hades in Julian Wachner’s Rev. 23 with the Prototype Festival, and Rodolfo in La bohème with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. During his two year tenure with the prestigious Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera, van Schoonhoven made his company debut as the Young Servant in Elektra, as well as covered Froh in Das Rheingold, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Aegisth in Elektra, and in It’s a Wonderful Life, he covered both George Bailey and Uncle Billy.
Kyle van Schoonhoven is the recipient of a 2019 George London award, has received the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award, and was a finalist in the 2016 Jensen Foundation Voice Competition. Additional repertory includes the title role in Chandler Carter’s Bobby, Alfredo in La Traviata, Hoffmann in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oronte in Alcina, Peter Fallow in Stefania de Kenessey’s Bonfire of the Vanities, and Genaro in the US Russian language premiere cast of Prokofiev’s Maddalena. van Schoonhoven holds a Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College as well as a Bachelor of Music from Fredonia School of Music.